Page 256 - the-trial

bends over to try and see in. When the doorkeeper notices
this he laughs and says, ‘If you’re tempted give it a try, try
and go in even though I say you can’t. Careful though: I’m
powerful. And I’m only the lowliest of all the doormen. But
there’s a doorkeeper for each of the rooms and each of them
is more powerful than the last. It’s more than I can stand
just to look at the third one.’ The man from the country had
not expected difficulties like this, the law was supposed to
be accessible for anyone at any time, he thinks, but now he
looks more closely at the doorkeeper in his fur coat, sees his
big hooked nose, his long thin tartar-beard, and he decides
it’s better to wait until he has permission to enter. The door-
keeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down to one side
of the gate. He sits there for days and years. He tries to be
allowed in time and again and tires the doorkeeper with his
requests. The doorkeeper often questions him, asking about
where he’s from and many other things, but these are dis-
interested questions such as great men ask, and he always
ends up by telling him he still can’t let him in. The man had
come well equipped for his journey, and uses everything,
however valuable, to bribe the doorkeeper. He accepts ev-
erything, but as he does so he says, ‘I’ll only accept this so
that you don’t think there’s anything you’ve failed to do’.
Over many years, the man watches the doorkeeper almost
without a break. He forgets about the other doormen, and
begins to think this one is the only thing stopping him from
gaining access to the law. Over the first few years he curses
his unhappy condition out loud, but later, as he becomes
old, he just grumbles to himself. He becomes senile, and as